Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

Illustrations

Editor’s Foreword

Why is this memoir published posthumously, almost sixty years aft er
it was written? Th e author, Ida Donges Staudt (1875-1952), and her husband,
Calvin K. Staudt (1876-1951), who cofounded the American School
for Boys in Baghdad in 1924, retired in 1947. They accepted the invitation

Editor’s Acknowledgments

Preface

This book chronicles interesting and colorful incidents of my life in Baghdad
and Iraq. It gives my observations and experiences and reactions in a
reborn land as it was trying to adjust itself to a new world with its surging
influences and problems. My life in Iraq, as it was framed between two...

1. Arriving in Baghdad, 1924

When I was graduated from a small college, which was only a little more
than a preparatory school, I was not yet sixteen. The town was small and
its two major influences were the college and the church. I grew up rather
unsophisticated and knew much less of the general ways of the world than...

2. An Educational Adventure

Our appointed task was to be engaged in educational work in Baghdad,
and to that end we at once addressed ourselves. It was an educational
adventure in more ways than one, and was undertaken at a time when
conditions for such a venture were favorable. This was shortly after the...

3. School of Life

As I was about to undertake the writing of this chapter, a letter came to
us from one of our former students who is now enjoying a fellowship in
a university in America where he is doing graduate work. In his letter he
tells what the American School for Boys in Baghdad has meant to him. He...

4. Significant Occasions

No sooner had we arrived in Baghdad than we launched into a continuous
stream of public events. These were significant occasions which
introduced us to every phase of Baghdad’s stirring and varied life. These
occasions, too, were spectacular and dramatic in both setting and action...

5. Yesterday and Today in Baghdad

I seldom went down the street in those earlier years without exclaiming
at something new that had caught my eye: a new business establishment
displaying new goods, the first large plate window installed by an automobile
concern, a modern hotel modeled aft er a European, a cinema offering...

6. Gardens, Houses, and Feasts

No one really knows the heart of Baghdad unless he has intimately
entered into the exquisitely lovely customs that prevailed. It was my rare
privilege while in Baghdad to enjoy many a garden party, to share the joys
of the various feasts of the different communities, to be entertained with...

7. Weddings

Weddings in all countries are of ageless interest, and those in Baghdad
were novel as well as interesting to us. This, in large measure, was attributed
to the great variety of forms which stemmed from the many races and
religions in the population and the desire of each group to hold on tenaciously...

8. Little Journeys about the City

How long the summer days in Baghdad are. The sun rises early and greets
the sleepers on the roof with a heated and vehement call: “Arise, arise.”
And it is the part of wisdom to heed this fervid call. For the sluggard who
continues to doze aft er Phoebus has given the call there is no mercy. He...

9. Baghdad from the Tigris

It is the Tigris that draws you in Baghdad; at least, it did draw me. The river
is so accessible, so near to every part of the city, flowing almost through
the middle of it, that one would suppose much use would be made of it for
recreation and enjoyment. But we did not find this to be so, though when...

10. To Basrah on the Tigris

Having learned to know the Tigris as it flows through the heart of Baghdad,
I bestirred myself to follow its course also from Baghdad to Basrah.
Henry Van Dyke once wrote that every river has its own quality and that
it is the part of wisdom to know and love as many as you can...

11. Visiting the Shiah Holy Cities

The rug below the table on which I am writing was bought from an Iranian
pilgrim. As I look down and see the intricate design, and turn the
rug over to see the many knots to the square inch, I am touched with a
profound thought. Th is pilgrim came with very little money in his possession...

12. In the Land of the Kurds

When you are in Baghdad you certainly are confined to it. Are there
pleasant drives in the environs, or a variety of scenes nearby, or hills with
a cooler air within a reasonable distance? None. Th e plain of southern
Iraq, throughout most of the year, is a hot, parched desert, with towns not...

13. Exploring Scenic Iraq

From Arbil to the Iranian frontier five mountain ranges must be crossed.
When we had reached the top of the first range, we could discern lying
before us, as far as the eye could reach, range aft er range of mountains,
each rising higher and higher in the distance. Some of the peaks toward...

14. The Bedouin Tribes

One cannot live in Iraq without being conscious all the time of the tribes.
Almost the whole population outside the cities is subject to the tribal system.
Someone who has lived in the country the major part of his life, and
who knew the tribal ramifications, has stated that seven-eighths of the...

15. The Uprooted Assyrians

Strange to have a train conductor in ecclesiastical robes,” I said to my husband
in the train from Basrah to Baghdad on our arrival in Iraq in 1924. He
was a friendly, bearded man, this priestly conductor, or guard as the British
would say. Th e black robe he wore had a rusty look, and the purple trimmings...

16. Iraq’s Great Statesman

Three armies in the First World War were on the march to break up the
Turkish Ottoman Empire. These three campaigns were spectacular and
of staggering consequences. General Allenby marched his army from
Egypt into Palestine; Prince Faisal and Colonel Lawrence headed toward...

17. And So They Passed

The death of King Faisal was a great loss to the country. Indeed, it was a
calamity for he could not be replaced. Then there were other very influential
people who passed away aft er our arrival in Baghdad. Th e number is
really appalling. Death seems to have singled out Iraq as his special field...

18. The Magic Horse and the Magic Carpet

Routes! Routes of migration, routes of armies, routes of travel, routes of
trade; land routes, sea routes, and air routes girdling the earth like Ariel!
Nowhere else in the world had I ever become so conscious of routes as
in Iraq. Whether I was thinking of the ancient highways of the land or...

19. The Story of Oil

Three letters of the alphabet spell the little word oil, which, like the little
word atom, is charged with tremendous power, both for good and for evil.
Oil has shaped and shapes national and international policies. It causes
plans and intrigues to move as does that dark and thick and oily flow. It...

20. A Nazi-Inspired Revolt, 1941

Crossing Faisal Bridge one morning, an automobile stopped at my side,
and a friendly voice invited me to share the car. It was the wife of Herr
Doctor Grobba, the German minister to Iraq. Incidentally while conversing,
she made some reference to her husband, and this gave her an occasion...

21. Changing and Changeless Baghdad

In July of 1941 we left Baghdad with nothing in our possession by way
of booking except railway tickets from Baghdad to the port of Basrah. As
World War II was on, we were advised to go without booking and pick
up chances along the way. Happily, chances followed one aft er another...

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